Dangerously Irrelevant

Recent publicity for me and CASTLE - Edutopia, T.H.E. Journal, Fort Dodge Messenger, ISU Talk About IT & College of Human Sciences

Thought I’d share some recent publicity that CASTLE and I have gotten. I’ve been sitting on some of these for a while and wanted to get them all out so I can focus on NECC ‘09!

Edutopia

Quick: Name ten excellent Web sites related to the grade level or subject area you teach.

Scott McLeod, coordinator of the educational-administration program at Iowa State University, recently posed that question on his blog, Dangerously Irrelevant. Many of the comments his readers left echo McLeod's assertion that the Internet delivers "a paucity of high-quality online resources for educators."

McLeod and others don't deny the abundance of online resources teachers have at their fingertips. The challenge is sifting through all that stuff to find what you need -- and then knowing how to incorporate the gems into your curriculum. 

Read more…

T.H.E. Journal

SCOTT MCLEOD SAYS the great sin in the way professional development is provided in this country is one of omission. On his blog, McLeod, an associate professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Iowa State University and the coordinator of the department's Educational Administration Program, writes, "Most of our school leaders have received no training whatsoever when it comes to 21st-century schooling."

It is not totally their fault, he says. Few higher ed programs for administrators even have a course dealing with digital technology, and if they do, the course generally covers basic software, not leadership. Neither school districts nor professional organizations offer workshops in the area either. As a result, no movement can be made toward 21stlearning environments: When leaders are clueless about technology and the impact it can have in classrooms, they are powerless to change their school or district into one that provides tech-enabled instruction for students.

Read more…

Fort Dodge (IA) Messenger (this link might expire?)

In a world where so much revolves around technology, high school students often only have the opportunity to use technology as part of their in-school learning process for an average of 30 minutes per week.

That is something that Scott McLeod, associate professor of educational leadership at Iowa State University, would like to see change in Iowa classrooms.

McLeod was the keynote speaker Tuesday afternoon at the Iowa Central Summer Science Institute at Iowa Central Community College, where he addressed a group of 25 high school and college science instructors on how they can implement technology in the classroom and why it is so crucial for students to be able to develop workplace skills and remain engaged in their course work.

Read more…

ISU Talk About IT

See the original here…

ISU College of Human Sciences

See the original here… (pp. 18-19)

Happy reading / viewing!

Technology boot camp for administrators

A few weeks ago we decided to offer a technology ‘boot camp’ for administrators. CASTLE is working with the School Administrators of Iowa to make it happen. For those of you who are interested, here is some information on what we’re doing:

• Promotional flyer
• Boot camp wiki 
• The signs we have all around the room

We started yesterday. Unlike our Transitioning Schools into the 21st Century workshops, which focused on technology leadership issues, the purpose of the boot camp is solely to ramp up school leaders’ technological skills. Our emphasis is on providing a safe space for administrators to learn and empowering them to walk away from the workshop with the ability to actually do this stuff. We’re taking our time, answering lots of questions, and covering whatever we can in the time that we have. We had participants blogging within the first hour yesterday. They were pretty excited!

We’ve got a great bunch of school leaders in this first boot camp. If today goes as well as yesterday, we’ll do a few more next academic year.

Any feedback that you have on what we’re doing would be most welcome. Anyone out there doing something similar? If so, how’s it going?

CASTLE Round-Up - Week of June 8

This is a quick round-up of what happened on the CASTLE blogs last week…

LeaderTalk

Sue King discussed her thoughts on wrapping up another school year.

Barbara Barreda noted that we need to rethink learning and curriculum resources when we move to 1:1 laptop programs in our schools.

Angela Maiers wrote about students who read without meaning.

EdJurist

Justin Bathon was busy last week! He wrote about the always-exciting area of teacher pension funds, the digital efficiencies that may come with electronic textbooks, an editorial in The Atlantic about K-12 education, and Senator Harrison Williams. He also highlighted the National Conference of State Legislators’ online bill tracking database and wondered if NCLB is a ‘hostage of fortune.’

In addition, Justin teed off on a news story about student sexual harassment:

The operating assumption here, and it is explicitly acknowledged in the article, is that kids are sexually harassing each other all over the place. Kids are probably exposing themselves everyday, fondling each other, forcing kisses on each other, raping each other. That is the clear modus operandi of all teenagers because they are "hormonally charged." To support these assumptions, she quotes a consultant who would benefit if such was the national perception. We must assume the worst, and that assumption must override any data ... because, well, we all know that schools and tennagers are bad, in all cases.

Dangerously Irrelevant

Posting here at Dangerously Irrelevant was light as I was busy with Summer Book Club preparation. I posted two book club updates:

• CASTLE Summer Book Club – Update 2
• CASTLE Summer Book Club – Update 3

I also squeezed in a quick note about why I never let my visitors’ ability to comment on my old posts expire.

Happy reading!

CASTLE Summer Book Club - We have liftoff!

Whew! It’s consumed a lot of my time the past week but I am pleased to say that the 2009 CASTLE Summer Book Club is off and running! [Okay, more accurately, I should say that it has consumed a lot of the valuable time of Laura Bestler, CASTLE’s technology coordinator. Thank you, Laura!]

How to participate

Thanks to a few last-minute folks, our grand total is 246. Participants are busy introducing themselves (and learning how to comment on a blog!). If you want to follow the action, here are our four discussion groups:

• Group 1 (blue)
• Group 2 (orange)
• Group 3 (green)
• Group 4 (pink)

Even if you’re not an ‘official’ participant and thus can’t post to the group blogs, you still can play along at home by leaving comments (be sure to read the copyright notice in the initial Getting Started post). If you’re interested, each discussion group also has RSS feeds and e-mail subscription options for both the posts and the comments.

Social media

The book club has a Twitter and Technorati hashtag (#castlebc) and a Twibe.

Hope you’ll join us for our live podcast with Dr. Daniel Willingham, the author of Why Don’t Students Like School?, at 12pm Central on July 13!

CASTLE Summer Book Club - Update 3

[Update: If you registered, please check your junk mail / spam folders. Many of you who thought you had not received an e-mail from me later found my message in there...]

Registration for the 2009 CASTLE Summer Book Club has closed. We have 238 participants this year, including myself. Whew! Participants come from the following countries:

• Canada (6)
• Malaysia (1)
• Singapore (1)
• United Kingdom (1)
• United States (229)

I have divided us into four discussion groups. Last night I sent an e-mail to all participants that confirmed their registration and notified them of their group number. They will receive another e-mail this weekend that includes the URL of their online discussion area. The links to the four discussion areas will be posted here as well. Our conversations will be public and anyone can join us on an ad hoc basis as desired.

We start on Monday!

Mark your calendars

Dr. Daniel Willingham, author of the book that we’re reading, Why Don’t Students Like School?, has graciously agreed to do a live podcast with me on July 13 from 1pm to 2pm Eastern. Questions will be generated from our book club participants.

Related posts

• Our discussion timeline for the summer
• Some FAQs
• Another update

CASTLE Summer Book Club - Update 2

Registration for the 2009 CASTLE Summer Book Club closes this Wednesday at midnight. To date we have 159 participants, which blows the doors off of last year’s total of 125. A week ago we had 81 participants, so we’ve effectively doubled the size of the group in the last seven days. Awesome!

We’re reading Why Don’t Students Like School? by Dr. Daniel Willingham, a cognitive psychologist at the University of Virginia. I selected this book despite the fact that my alma mater, The College of William & Mary, is a fierce in-state academic rival of UVA so you know the book has to be pretty good! Sorry, those of you who have asked for a Kindle version...

Stay in touch as you have questions. I’ll see some of you online starting next week! 

CASTLE Round-Up - Week of June 1

This is a quick round-up of what happened on the CASTLE blogs last week… 

Edjurist

Scott Bauries discussed how the No Child Left Behind Act has introduced some new angles into school finance equity lawsuits. Scott also shared some initial thoughts about the burgeoning movement toward national curriculum standards.

Justin Bathon highlighted some issues related to a parent’s request to read the Bible in her son’s kindergarten class.

LeaderTalk

Kimberly Moritz wants to know: Why do we do it this way? She answers: Fear of reproach is how we end up closing the doors to our classrooms and offices and doing the same things year after year.

Mark Stock also asked a question: What does school reform look like when the National Education Association agrees with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce?

Ryan Bretag said, “In this day and age when content is available anytime, anywhere, and to anyone, classrooms can no longer be tethered to the content-driven, physical spaces defined by 20th Century methodologies.”

Jayson Richardson highlighted some generational differences. Apparently I’m part of the Nike Generation.

Dennis Richards noted that 98% of kindergarteners were classified as geniuses when it came to divergent thinking (which is what you do when you are not forced to conform…).

Dangerously Irrelevant

I gave an update on the CASTLE Summer Book Club and I posted three quotes from Richard Longworth’s absolutely brilliant book, Caught in the Middle: America’s Heartland in the Age of Globalism:

• Any job that does not require face-to-face contact with a customer can be outsourced
• They are totally unqualified for any job other than the ones they just lost
• Biosciences will hire no dropouts

I also wrapped up my series of quotes from Michael Port's The Think Big Manifesto:

• We are the biggest obstacle
• We are squandering the gifts of the universe
• Get comfortable with discomfort

Finally, I reinstated the Not So Irrelevant feature of this blog, which I use to highlight various links of interest from around the Web. School administrators are busy. Hopefully I can steer them toward some online resources that will be informative and helpful. This time I’m limiting my selections to just 5 links per day. Last week I posted 25 links:

• Not so irrelevant 015
• Not so irrelevant 016
• Not so irrelevant 017
• Not so irrelevant 018
• Not so irrelevant 019 (I think this one’s the best)

Happy reading!

CASTLE Summer Book Club - Update 1

We’re down to two weeks before the 2009 CASTLE Summer Book Club starts and we’ve got 81 participants signed up already. That’s great!

We will be reading Why Don't Students Like School? by Dr. Daniel Willingham. I'm still deciding what online platform we’re going to use to facilitate our discussions. Last year we used Lefora. It worked pretty well but so far I’m leaning toward something different this year.

Here are some answers to a few questions that people have asked me:

1. Will our conversations occur on specific dates or at specific times? No, our discussion will be completely asynchronous. We don’t care when you participate. Whatever’s most convenient for you.
2. What are the expectations regarding participation? We ask that you don’t sign up if you’re not committed to being fully engaged in the entire 5 weeks of discussion. That means that you’re keeping up with the reading (no more than 40 pages each week), visiting our discussion space at least several times a week, and participating rather than lurking.
3. What happens if I change my mind or need to drop out? Well, this is all self-organized and voluntary so there’s not much we can do about it. We lost participants last year because they didn’t like the book, their summer schedule changed, they couldn’t get into the online discussion format, etc. No worries. It’s your life! That said, we hope most of you will make it to the end (it’s only 5 weeks!).
4. Should I participate if I’m not a K-12 educator? Maybe. We’re surely not going to kick you out and probably will benefit from your different perspective. It depends on how much you’re interested in how people learn and what that means for cognitively-appropriate teaching practice in K-12 classrooms.
5. Will our discussions be private? Nope. So be thoughtful as you write, particularly if you’re discussing people you know or the organization in which you work.
6. What’s our reading schedule again? You can find that and other information (including how to sign up!) at my original post announcing the book club.

Got other questions that aren’t answered here? Leave a comment below or drop me a note; I’ll do my best to answer them quickly.

CASTLE Round-Up - Week of May 25

This is a quick round-up of what happened on the CASTLE blogs last week…

LeaderTalk

James Yap discussed how a highly-acclaimed deaf education program actually treats deafness as a pathology.

Reggie Engebritson celebrated Graduation Day with the seven graduates of her alternative school.

Edjurist

Justin Bathon highlighted his new article on free legal research resources and discussed the intersections of school district student residency requirements and child support payments.

Justin also concluded his series on search, seizure, and school resource officers and asked why there are no education law professors on the Law Profs Blog Network.

Dangerously Irrelevant

I kicked off the second annual CASTLE Summer (Online) Book Club and asked for help identifying blogs and web sites where parents were writing about their local school districts. I also stirred up some controversy by calling two faculty members ‘stupid.’

I tried to wrap my head around some American workforce data and discussed two key questions for organizations with an online presence:

1. Why should I come at all?
2. Why should I come back?

I highlighted the upcoming Constructing Modern Knowledge conference, created a Kindle version of this blog, and reviewed the award-winning book, The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy.

We also wrapped Episode 6 of the 4 Guys Talking podcast, which was one of the best we’ve had to date.

Happy reading (and listening)!

Second annual CASTLE summer book club starts June 15

After much deliberation, I’ve decided to do another online summer book club. I’m supposed to be taking the summer off but last year’s discussion of Influencer: The Power to Change Anything was so much fun that I can’t resist doing it again…

This year’s reading for the CASTLE summer book club will be Why Don’t Students Like School? A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions About How the Mind Works and What It Means for Your Classroom. The author is Dr. Daniel Willingham, Professor of Psychology at The University of Virginia.

Getting started

1. Complete the online participation form by midnight, June 10 (Central time).
2. Buy the book!

Commitments

• We start June 15. Be ready.
• Keep up with the reading. No excuses.
• Be an active participant in our online discussion area.
• Dissect ideas vigorously but also be nice to other discussants.
• Help foster interesting dialogue and connected community.

Schedule

1. 6/15 to 6/21 – Introduction, Chapter 1, and Chapter 2 (40 pages)
2. 6/22 to 6/28 – Chapters 3 and 4 (40 pages)
3. 6/29 to 7/5 – Chapters 5 and 6 (32 pages)
4. 7/6 to 7/12 – Chapters 7 and 8 (34 pages)
5. 7/13 to 7/19 – Chapter 9, Conclusion, and Wrap-Up (20 pages)

This offer is open to all leaders and change agents, at whatever level they’re operating (hint: this might be a good summer activity for some of your local principals or superintendents!).

I’m looking forward to some interesting discussions. Hope some of you will join me this summer!

Related posts

• CASTLE Summer Book Club - Update 1

4 Guys Talking - Episode 6 (Chuck Heinlein)

If you’d like to know what a good statewide 21st century school leadership development program looks like, have we got a podcast for you!

This morning we had Episode 6 of 4 Guys Talking, the ‘talk radio’ podcast series from CASTLE. We spent the first 40 minutes talking with Chuck Heinlein, Director of the Leadership Center for 21st Century Schools at the West Virginia Department of Education.

I think this was one of our best podcasts to date. Chuck shared a wealth of information about the statewide principal institutes that he’s running, and we learned a ton about the legislative supports, Department of Education commitments, funding and policy mechanisms, and other supports that are in place in the state. I have the sense that West Virginia really is trying very hard to move its schools (and its school leaders) forward in a thoughtful, progressive, sustainable manner.

You can download the podcast or listen to a Web-streamed version here:

• www.blogtalkradio.com/uceacastle

You also can subscribe to the 4 Guys Talking feed using iTunes or a RSS reader.

Thanks to those of you who joined us live. I’m not sure when our next episodes will be but I will blog about them when I know. Happy listening!

Update: I deleted the embedded BlogTalkRadio player that used to be in this post. Since it started playing automatically, I thought it was too annoying!

CASTLE Round-Up - Week of May 18

This is a quick round-up of what happened on the CASTLE blogs last week…

EdJurist

Over at CASTLE’s education law blog, Justin Bathon noted that eventually we need to ‘get over’ the visceral emotions associated with the Columbine school shooting and stop overreacting to student behavior. Justin also wrote about the federal stimulus funds imbroglio in South Carolina that has resulted in the governor suing the state legislature.

Occasional guest blogger Scott Bauries shared his thoughts on restraint and seclusion to control the behavior of special education students. He also threw up some initial thoughts about cyberbullying and the First Amendment. 

LeaderTalk

Cyberbullying also was on the mind of LeaderTalk contributor Nancy Flynn. She shared some of her perspectives on the issue as an elementary school principal.

Kevin Riley wrote about ‘spinning heel kicks’ and mapping the Taekwondo ideas of mastery and ability grouping to schools and standardized testing.

Dangerously Irrelevant

Here at Dangerously Irrelevant, I put up what may be one of my favorite posts ever, Are educational leadership faculty seen as ‘leaders’ by the leaders that they serve?

I also posted two lists that have gotten some attention on Twitter:

• Top 20 TED Talks podcasts for busy school administrators
• Top 10 K12 Online 2008 podcasts for busy school administrators

Other posts last week included some of my own thoughts about an elementary school cyberbullying incident, a notification about our upcoming Episode 6 of the 4 Guys Talking podcast and my quest to find out a little bit about my readers. Additionally, I explored the idea of how to get the Twitter feeds of all Iowa educators (and, also, all schools, districts, or universities) in one place.

Happy reading!

4 Guys Talking - May 26 guest, Chuck Heinlein

Chuck Heinlein, Director of the Leadership Center for 21st Century Schools at the West Virginia Department of Education, will be our guest tomorrow on the 4 Guys Talking podcast. Chuck has an incredible job. Over the past few years he has run hundreds of administrators in his state through year-long institutes on 21st century schooling. As far as I can tell, West Virginia is far ahead of other states when it comes to investing in a statewide model for 21st century leadership development.

You can join us and Chuck on May 26, 1pm Central, for the live podcast. Feel free to call in and join the conversation yourself and/or help us brainstorm some questions for Chuck beforehand. The podcast also will be available for download afterward. Thanks!

Who are you?

I’m trying to get a handle on who’s reading Dangerously Irrelevant (it’s not as easy as you might think). So I thought the best way would be to just ask!

I created a 2- to 4-question survey. It shouldn’t take you more than 60 seconds. Please?

[If you follow me on Twitter, here's my 60-second Twitter survey. Thanks!]

CASTLE Round-Up - Week of May 11

This is a quick round-up of what happened on the CASTLE blogs last week…

LeaderTalk

At LeaderTalk, Barbara Barreda proposed that we “join our teachers in the ritual of closing down the school year by taking stock of our office and jettisoning the bottom 20%... the things that are good ideas but not great or critical.”

When we’re drowning in social media, Angela Maiers reminds us to just BREATHE.

Inbox Zero for Social Networking: Just BREATHE

View more presentations from angelamaiers.

Chris Hitch asked how we can find ways to motivate our staff in non-monetary ways during these difficult budgetary times and offered a few suggestions of his own.

EdJurist

Over at EdJurist, CASTLE’s education law blog, Justin Bathon said that we can learn a few things from NASCAR about randomized drug testing of teachers.

Justin also noted that

We absolutely need clarity from the courts on whether school resource officers are more like school employees or more like police. This having it both ways stuff (to the detriment of the students in all cases) has got to stop.

Finally, Justin posted Episode 4 of EdJurist TV, which focused on interesting student discipline cases from last year.

Dangerously Irrelevant

Here at Dangerously Irrelevant, my post, It’s not ‘the tests.’ It’s us., generated quite a bit of interesting commentary.

I posted a new video from Stephen Heppell and another of Seth Godin at TED. I also pointed to an interesting graphic from Tech&Learning regarding what students want in e-textbooks, highlighted AASA’s upcoming Seattle Summit, and showed the name badge ribbons that I’m bringing to NECC. I gave updates on my quest to identify model 21st century schools, the number of recipes on BlogTweetCook.org, and the lack of effective communication in my local school district.

Oh, yeah, Episode 5 of 4 Guys Talking (with Lane Mills) is now available.

Happy reading!

Badge ribbons for NECC 2009

I’m getting excited for NECC 2009. Just a few more weeks and I’ll be griping about the hot, muggy weather in my hometown of Washington, D.C. I can’t wait!

Those of you who attended Edubloggercon last year may remember that I brought a bunch of buttons for attendees. This year, after consulting with Steve Hargadon and Anita McAnear at ISTE, I decided to spend some CASTLE funds to purchase name badge ribbons. You can see mockups below. The white one will be left-justified, not centered, and I’ll bring Sharpies so that folks can write in their Twitter name. The green and white ribbons will be available at Edubloggercon. Whatever’s left over will be put with the blue ribbons in the NECC Unplugged lounge. First come, first serve. Hope to see you there!

Model 21st century schools - Update 2

Here’s how we’re doing at collectively creating a list of model 21st century schools that are doing a nice job of infusing 21st century skills, digital technologies, problem- or inquiry-based learning, and other innovative practices into their school organization:

Those 59 United States schools represent 26 states. The International schools are in 10 different countries.

So we’re making GREAT progress. However, we still have a number of states (and countries) that don’t have a single school organization listed. I know that there are schools in every state that are doing wonderful things in the areas of problem-based learning, 21st century skills, or technology integration. Would you help us identify more model schools, either by adding them yourself or passing this quest along to others? We are in desperate need of good models that educators can learn from and visit. Thanks!

4 Guys Talking - Episode 5 (Lane Mills)

This morning we had Episode 5 of 4 Guys Talking, the new ‘talk radio’ podcast series from CASTLE. We spent almost the entire time talking about university educational leadership preparation programs.

Our first 40 minutes was spent with Dr. Lane Mills, Associate Professor at East Carolina University (ECU) and board member for the journal,Innovate. Among other things, Lane talked about being the ‘lone wolf’ faculty member when it came to trying to prepare his program’s graduates (future school administrators) for the demands of the digital, global age. Lane essentially said that

Making change in higher education is like pushing a rope.

We continued to talk about the difficulty of getting our faculty peers on board ideologically and, even when they are, also getting them the training and knowledge that they need but currently lack. There’s little support for faculty even when they do want to move in this direction.

After Lane left us, we continued to talk about the struggles that educational leadership programs face as they work to prepare appropriately-empowered graduates. One issue that we started to discuss - and probably should spend some more time on in a later podcast – is the desirability of having certain technology and/or leadership expectations for admission of our incoming students (who are typically teachers or principals) and/or explicitly-stated desired outcomes for our graduates regarding technology leadership.

Jen Hegna challenged us right at the end, stating:

What can k-12 schools do while higher ed is trying to figure [out] their leadership programs? It is hard for us to wait...we need change now!

She’s got us dead to rights, I’m afraid. Other than for her to keep plugging away on her end, I don’t have any great answers right now for her concern. It’s going to take a while for those of us in academe to get our act together (if ever we will).

You can download the podcast or listen to a Web-streamed version here:

• www.blogtalkradio.com/uceacastle

You also can subscribe to the 4 Guys Talking feed using iTunes or a RSS reader.

Thanks to those of you who joined us live. Our next show will be on May 26, 1pm to 2pm Central. We’ll be talking with Dr. Chuck Heinlein, Director of the West Virginia Institute for 21st Century Leadership, which is sponsored by the West Virginia Department of Education.

[I'm still reworking CASTLE Conversations, the old CASTLE podcast channel, which will include all previous and podcasts (including 4 Guys Talking). I'll post about it when it's ready (probably not until later this summer).]

Happy listening!

Model 21st century schools - Update 1

A week ago I asked for your help identifying model 21st century schools. Although I knew of a few schools or districts that were good models of what the new learning paradigm might look like, I was sure that there were many more schools out there that were doing great things when it came to project- or inquiry-based learning, technology integration, and so on.

Here’s what we have so far:

• 36 schools/districts in the USA, representing only 18 states
• 6 international schools, representing 5 countries

So, as you can see, we have a long way to go toward meeting my goal of at least 2 schools in each state and at least 50 in other countries.

Why don’t we have more? Several reasons, I’m guessing:

1. My readers don’t know what the exemplary 21st century schools are in their state/country,
2. I wasn’t persuasive enough for my readers to actually go to the Moving Forward wiki and enter the schools that they know about, and/or
3. There just aren’t that many exemplary 21st century schools.

While #3 is probably true to a certain extent, I’m guessing (hoping?) that each state has at least 2 schools that can serve as models for others. And I’m positive that some states, like California or Texas, have many more than 2. So I’m asking for your help again. Please go to the United States or International wiki pages and enter schools in your state/country that you know about. Also pass this quest along to others who may have knowledge in this area. We’re in desperate need of models of 21st century schooling. Help me create a shared resource that will be of value to everyone?

4 Guys Talking - May 11 guest, Dr. Lane Mills

Dr. Lane Mills, Associate Professor at East Carolina University (ECU) and board member for the journal, Innovate, will be our next guest on the 4 Guys Talking podcast. Lane's working hard to integrate digital technologies into the Educational Leadership program at ECU. He also does a great deal of technology-facilitated data-driven decision-making work with school districts.

You can join Lane and us on May 11, 9am Central, for the live podcast. Feel free to call in and join the conversation yourself and/or help us brainstorm some questions for Lane beforehand. The podcast also will be available for download afterward. Thanks!

4 Guys Talking - Episode 4 (Jeff Mao)

Yesterday was Episode 4 of 4 Guys Talking, the new ‘talk radio’ podcast series from CASTLE. We spent the entire time talking about 1:1 laptop programs. Our first 50 minutes was spent with Jeff Mao, Learning Technology Policy Director for the State of Maine. Among other things, Jeff talked about funding models, professional development for teachers and administrators, pedagogical frameworks, challenges faced by the state over the past few years, and, perhaps surprisingly, the relative lack of emphasis on standardized test scores as measurable outcomes for the initiative. He also shared his strong feelings about laptops v. netbooks for 1:1 programs. After Jeff left us, we spent the last 10 minutes debriefing, sharing thoughts, and raising further questions.

You can download the podcast or listen to a Web-streamed version here:

• www.blogtalkradio.com/uceacastle

You also can subscribe to the 4 Guys Talking feed using iTunes or a RSS reader.

Thanks to those of you who joined us live yesterday, either by calling in or listening over the Web. Future dates/times are as follows (all times Central):

• May 11, 9am to 10am
• May 26, 1pm to 2pm

[Yes, I'm still reworking CASTLE Conversations, the old CASTLE podcast channel, which will include all previous and podcasts (including 4 Guys Talking). I'll post about it when it's ready (probably not until summer).]

Happy listening!

Photo credit: An Apple in the dark 2

Help wanted: Model 21st century schools?

Which schools are good models that others could (should) visit to see what a new educational paradigm might look like?

This is the #1 question I get asked when I work with K-12 educators. I know a few, but I’m guessing that you know more. So I’m on a quest…

1. Think about who's doing a nice job in your state/country of infusing 21st century skills, digital technologies, problem- or inquiry-based learning, and other innovative practices into their school organization.
2. Go to the United States and/or International page at CASTLE’s Moving Forward wiki and add the name of the school organization and contact person in the appropriate place. If your state/territory/country isn’t listed, please add it.
3. Using the category list at the top of the page, indicate the category of innovation at the end of your entry so that visitors know which schools to visit for what. If you need to add a category, please do so.
4. Hyperlink the name of the school organization to its web site.
5. Repeat Steps 2 through 4 for each school organization that is a model of 21st century learning.

By Monday, April 27, I’m hoping that together we can identify at least 150 model school organizations, including at least 2 in every state and at least 50 overseas. I will be reporting out daily on our progress both here and via Twitter.

Please pass along this quest. The more model 21st century schools we get, the better resources these two pages will be for everyone. Feel free to use the logo as desired. Thank you!

4 Guys Talking - Jeff Mao (Maine 1:1 laptop initiative) joins us on Monday!

I’m pleased to announce that Jeff Mao, Learning Technology Policy Director for the State of Maine, will be our first-ever official guest at 4 Guys Talking. Jeff will be joining us on Monday, April 20, at 2:00pm Central to share the latest on Maine’s statewide 1:1 laptop initiative, including its recent push to expand the program to include all students in grades 7 through 12.

We have started brainstorming some questions for Jeff on our wiki page. Feel free to add yours! You also may wish to first listen to Jeff’s conversation with the EdTechTalk crew back in June 2007. Hope you’ll join us on Monday!

Photo credit: An Apple in the dark 2

4 Guys Talking - Episode 3

This is a long overdue post that Episode 3 of 4 Guys Talking, the new ‘talk radio’ podcast series from CASTLE, is now available. As usual, our conversation ranged a bit but our focus was on reinventing schools. Justin Bathon said that we may have been a little negative. You’ll have to listen to see if you concur.

FYI, you’ll see that we had some hosting glitches at the beginning. If you start at 5:45 into the podcast, you’ll skip all of our confusion!

You can download the podcast or listen to a Web-streamed version here:

• www.blogtalkradio.com/uceacastle

You also can subscribe to the 4 Guys Talking feed using iTunes or a RSS reader.

Thanks to those of you who joined us live, either by calling in or listening over the Web. Future dates/times are as follows (all times Central):

• April 20, 2pm to 3pm
• May 11, 9am to 10am
• May 26, 1pm to 2pm

My hopes to rework CASTLE Conversations, the old CASTLE podcast channel (which will include all previous and podcasts such as 4 Guys Talking), are on hold until the end of my semester. I'll post about it when it's ready.

Happy listening!

Academics on Twitter

Recently I was interviewed for The Chronicle of Higher Education’s article on academics who Twitter. Here’s my portion of the story:

8. Scott McLeod, an associate professor at Iowa State University and director of the university's Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education. Tweet: "College students are online more AND reading more? http://snipurl.com/eko4k"

http://twitter.com/mcleod
Followers: 1,307. Posts: 1,190.

Mr. McLeod argues that professors have been too slow to adopt Twitter. Academic discussions online often take place on closed e-mail lists, he says, when they should be happening in public forums like Twitter, so that a diverse group of outsiders can join in. "I think academics are actually missing a lot by not being involved in more of these social tools," he told me. "There are a lot of academics who think, 'If it's not coming from some other academic it's not worth a damn,' and that's not right."

He admits that some of the messages on Twitter are banal, such as people describing what they had for lunch that day, but he said such notes are part of what makes Twitter such a powerful way to feel connected to far-flung colleagues. "It's like those daily interactions you have with your neighbor — sometimes they're highbrow and sometimes they're lowbrow, but after a while you really get to know the person."

I don’t know if academics have been too slow to adopt Twitter specifically, but I definitely believe that academics have been too slow to adopt social media generally.

Check out the article if you’re interested. What do you think are some good ways that professors could be using Twitter?

4 Guys Talking - Episode 3 is today

FYI, Episode 3 of 4 Guys Talking is today at noon Central. Follow the link to the live Internet stream, which also includes the call-in number if you want to give us a ring!

4 Guys Talking - Episode 2

Yesterday was Episode 2 of 4 Guys Talking, the new ‘talk radio’ podcast series from CASTLE. Like last time, our conversation ranged widely. Among other things, we discussed whether or not university educational administration programs should bear some blame for the poor leadership that exists in many schools, the fact that most school district technology leaders have had little to no leadership training, the unfortunate and continuing marginalization of technology to its own ‘silo’ within school organizations, and efforts within our respective states to train school administrators to be better technology leaders.

You can download the podcast or listen to a Web-streamed version here:

• www.blogtalkradio.com/uceacastle

You also can subscribe to the 4 Guys Talking feed using iTunes or a RSS reader.

Thanks to those of you who joined us live yesterday, either by calling in or listening over the Web. Future dates/times are as follows (all times Central):

• April 1, 12pm to 1pm
• April 20, 2pm to 3pm
• May 11, 9am to 10am
• May 26, 1pm to 2pm

I'm still reworking CASTLE Conversations, the old CASTLE podcast channel, which will include all previous and podcasts (including 4 Guys Talking). I'll post about it when it's ready.

Happy listening!

4 Guys Talking - Episode 2 is today

FYI, Episode 2 of 4 Guys Talking is today at 2pm Central. Follow the link to the live Internet stream, which also includes the call-in number if you want to give us a ring!

The Iowa series - Wrap-up

I've had a lot of fun guest blogging over at The Des Moines Register this week. For those of you who would like to have a single link that you can forward to others, you can use this web address:

http://snipurl.com/iowaseries

Here are links to each of the five posts here at Dangerously Irrelevant:

• Iowa - 21st century curricula
• Iowa - A robust system of online learning
• Iowa - A computer in every hand
• Iowa - Invest in leadership
• Iowa - Better information

Happy reading!

4 Guys Talking - Episode 1

Thursday was the inaugural episode of 4 Guys Talking, a new podcast series from CASTLE. The podcast consists of me, Jon Becker, David Quinn, and Jayson Richardson talking about a variety of education (K-12 and higher ed), technology, and/or leadership issues. We're all Educational Leadership professors who care about things like digital technologies, 21st century skills, and the like. Unfortunately, we're an extremely small minority in academia...

Thursday's conversation ranged widely. Among other things, we discussed whether undergraduates are truly the 'digital natives' that many say they are, universities' implementation of open source course management systems, how to facilitate K-12 teachers' buy-in toward technological initiatives, and who's to blame for the bad leadership that exists in many schools (a topic we'll likely return to in our next episode).

You can download the podcast or listen to a Web-streamed version here:

• www.blogtalkradio.com/uceacastle 

We do the podcast live on BlogTalkRadio, which essentially allows you to host (for free) an Internet version of live talk radio, so you can call in and participate if you wish. I think we can handle two or three callers at once besides the four of us (thanks to Jared and Lance who joined us for Episode 1!). Future dates/times are as follows (all times Central):

• March 9, 2pm to 3pm
• April 1, 12pm to 1pm 
• April 20, 2pm to 3pm 
• May 11, 9am to 10am 
• May 26, 1pm to 2pm 

FYI, I'm reworking CASTLE Conversations, the old CASTLE podcast channel. It will include all previous and podcasts (including 4 Guys Talking) so you'll be able to subscribe via RSS or iTunes. I'll post about it when it's ready.

Happy listening!

My February 2009

Are you (or your superintendent) going to be at the AASA conference next week? I’d love to get together Thursday night or Friday morning after my presentation. If so, drop me a note!

Given that the month’s half over, I’ve been a little remiss about posting where I’m going to be in February! Nonetheless… (* = public events)

• Feb 3 – 21st century skills presentation to Heartland AEA 11 superintendents in West Des Moines, IA
• Feb 4 – 21st century skills presentation to Grant Wood AEA 10 superintendents in Cedar Rapids, IA
• Feb 6* – presentation on getting noticed in an attention economy for the Iowa Public Relations and Marketing conference
• Feb 12* – Tribes discussion
• Feb 16 – 21st century skills workshop for Starmont CSD in Arlington, IA
• Feb 17 – 21st century skills presentation to the Des Moines (IA) Public Schools principals group
• Feb 20 – 21st century skills presentation for Learning.com at the AASA National Conference in San Francisco, CA
• Feb 23* – Conversations on the Iowa Core Curriculum at SAI in Clive, IA
• Feb 25 – 21st century skills presentation for Parkview Middle School in Ankey, IA
• Feb 26 – Inaugural podcast of 4 Guys Talking (more info later this month!)

Plus the usual other stuff like teaching, writing, meetings, hiring new faculty, etc.

K20 Winter Institute follow-up

Is it possible to spend an entire day with Wes Fryer and not have fun? Nope!

I updated the materials from my keynote at the K20 Center’s Winter Institute, including adding a podcast of my talk (listen while you view the slides!), some links from my follow-up session, and some Flickr photos.

Here are Wes’ materials from the institute:

• Notes from his session on international education partnerships
• Notes from my keynote
• Notes from my follow-up session (Wes kindly agreed to co-facilitate with me)
• Notes from Lt. Governor Jari Askins
• Notes from Attorney General Drew Edmondson
• Flickr photos

The K20 Center rocks. If you’re not familiar with its work, you’re missing out. Oklahoma is very lucky to have this center!

A Cyclone in Sooner territory

I’m excited to be in Norman, Oklahoma for the University of Oklahoma K20 Center’s annual Winter Institute. I really like the folks at the K20 Center and am looking forward to spending more time with them today and tomorrow. I’ll also get to see Wes Fryer and Jan Borelli, among others (I think Jan’s excited to see me too!). Everyone here is wonderfully welcoming. They even brought in the snow and ice from Iowa so that I’d feel more at home!

I wandered around the hotel last night, getting my bearings and snapping pictures. As you can see, I’ve got a large roomful of people to keep engaged so the pressure’s on!

I’ve posted the materials for my keynote. I think both Wes and the K20 Center are going to record me as well. If so, I’ll update this post with links to the recording(s).

Update: here's the audio podcast of my keynote.

Transitioning Schools into the 21st Century workshops

I thought I'd share something that we're doing here in Iowa...

The School Administrators of Iowa (SAI), the state leadership association for principals and superintendents, and CASTLE, my center at Iowa State U., are working together to ramp up administrators' knowledge and ability to be effective technology leaders and supporters.

The flyer for the workshops and our wiki will give you an idea of what we're doing:

• http://uceacastle.wikispaces.com/saitraining

Session 1 focused on big picture issues: the world has changed, schools need to change too, how do schools keep up?, how to lead in an era of disruptive innovation, etc.

Session 2 (occurring right now) starts with a little more big picture stuff, then introduces participants to the Social Web (including concrete examples of usage by teachers and students). We conclude with 60-75 minutes of getting set up with Google Reader and loading it up with a few feeds so that they can start immersing themselves in the Social Web too.

Reactions to the first two sessions have been extremely positive. School administrators want to do what's right - they just don't know this stuff and so don't know how to proceed. Helping them wrap their heads around what's happening, showing them concrete examples that spark ideas that can be done back home, and giving them the ability to engage in the social aspects of the Web are all activities that help them move themselves and their school organizations further along...

Session 3 likely will focus on good classroom technology integration (what does it look like? how do you support it?) and fears / concerns (what happens when you open up your school organization to these tools and learning environments?). We'll also likely show them some other stuff that they can do with Google Reader.

Thoughts? Reactions? Suggestions?

My January 2009

This year I’m going to try and do a better job of letting folks know where I’m going to be. David Warlick’s excellent at this… (* = public events)

• Jan 5 – working with the leadership team for Newton (IA) CSD; also visiting Van Meter (IA) CSD
• Jan 6* – technology leadership workshops for SAI in Council Bluffs, IA
• Jan 7* – technology leadership workshops for SAI in Ames, IA
• Jan 8 – meeting with ISEA, Des Moines, IA
• Jan 9 – online mini keynote for Web 2.0 Learning Institute, Montclair, NJ; participant in meeting of Iowa Coalition for Innovation & Growth, Des Moines, IA
• Jan 12* – technology leadership workshops for SAI in Coralville, IA
• Jan 15* – technology leadership workshops for Metro ECSU, MN
• Jan 16* – technology leadership workshops for SAI in Des Moines, IA
• Jan 20 – visiting Carroll (IA) High School; meeting with Ankeny (IA) CSD
• Jan 21 – participant in meeting of Iowa’s Wallace Foundation Grant advisory group, SAI, Des Moines, IA
• Jan 22 – technology leadership workshops for AEA 267, Cedar Falls, IA
• Jan 26 – technology leadership meeting at Iowa Department of Education; participant in Superintendents Roundtable for Iowa Department of Economic Development; panel presenter at Iowa Business Council Annual Partnership Meeting (all in Des Moines, IA)
• Jan 27 – participant in Iowa Department of Economic Development Legislative Breakfast & Innovation and Education Day at the Capitol
• Jan 29* – endowed lecture for University of Oklahoma K20 Center Winter Institute

Plus the usual workload of teaching, advising, scholarly writing, trying to hire new faculty, committee meetings, conference calls, etc.!

Introducing The Edjurist

Gawker Media has Gizmodo, Lifehacker, The Consumerist, Valleywag, Gawker, and seven others.

Weblogs, Inc. has Engadget, Autoblog, Joystiq, Luxist, Download Squad, and too many others to count.

Education Week and Teacher Magazine have eduwonkette, Bridging Differences, Web Watch, edbizbuzz, Digital Education, and a host of others.

CASTLE has Dangerously Irrelevant, LeaderTalk, and – now – The Edjurist!

Along with The School Law Blog, The Edjurist is a MUST-READ for anyone interested in K-12 school legal issues. We are absolutely delighted to welcome Dr. Justin Bathon (U. Kentucky) and The Edjurist to the stable of CASTLE blogs.

Here are a few of Justin’s recent posts:

• Finding free educational law information
• Johnson v. Poway shows why Garcetti doesn’t work for schools
• More on why Garcetti was wrong for schools
• Catching up … some weird dress code stories
• Thoughts on the California home schooling decision

Be sure to also see guest blogger Scott Bauries’ posts on the applicability of federal e-discovery rules to K-12 education:

• Intro
• Document retention systems

There’s no better way to stay on top of the latest educational law cases, news, and odd stories than to catch Justin’s Friday Snippets. Check him out!

Now, if I can only talk eduwonkette into being CASTLE’s education policy blog, then we’ll have some pretty good coverage of educational leadership topics (anyone interested in blogging on social justice, staff development, or school finance?!).

Note

CASTLE’s previous school law blog, At the Schoolhouse Gate, is being replaced by The Edjurist. If you were a loyal reader, thanks!

Sparking some school board discussion

Apparently I sparked a little discussion by a local school board! You've got to give them credit for asking the right questions and also being willing to experiment publicly with what to them were new technologies...

Article in The Washington Diplomat

I was a little stunned to see that I was the lead-in for this article in The Washington Diplomat:

• Thinking technology

I think I came across a little harsher than I am in real life, but that's okay. Happy reading!

NECC 2008 - Refreshing ISTE's NETS-A

Here are my notes from the NETS-A Refresh session…

Dr. Don Knezek, CEO of ISTE, asked me to stand up and describe the innovative work that CASTLE and I have done regarding the National Educational Technology Standards for Administrators (NETS-A). That was very kind of him to recognize our work. Thank you, Don!

Tim Magner, Director, Office of Educational Technology, United States Department of Education

• We know how important leadership is.
• We’ve spent over a decade on teachers and students but we’ve neglected our leaders.
• Leadership involves change.
• The new NETS-T (teacher standards) really emphasize modeling.
• With leaders we have to take it up a notch.
• The skills for leaders have to emphasize adaptation to a rapidly-changing world.
• We need leaders to look beyond today to the next generation of school.

Table activities (responses of my group)

• Identify three characteristics of administrators who are effective technology leaders.
• The entire room seems to be in favor of calling it NETS-L (leaders), not NETS-A (administrators).
• We worked on Standard VI (Social, Legal, and Ethical Issues).

It makes more sense to align the NETS-A with existing leadership standards (e.g., ELPS) than it does to align to NETS-S or NETS-T.

What I get to do every day

[click on image for larger version]

105 (CASTLE summer book club update)

What would happen if you expected that 15 to 25 people would be interested in your online summer book club and 105 showed up instead? I don't know but we're going to find out starting tomorrow!

CASTLE on Iowa Public Radio

The publicity grows regarding our collective ideas for active summer learning with technology. In addition to appearing on the ISU News Service home page and in the Ames (IA) Tribune, I also have been interviewed by both Radio Iowa and WHO Radio. Next Tuesday is Iowa Public Radio: live, between 12:20pm and 12:35pm Central (feel free to call in and ask a question)!

Thanks, everyone, for your contributions!

Ideas wanted - CASTLE summer book club

Today we officially topped 60 participants for CASTLE's first annual summer book club. That's great! - and many more people than I ever anticipated - but it also presents some challenges...

1. It's clear to me that we're going to need to have more than one discussion group. Even accounting for some attrition, if we don't break up into smaller groups then folks are going to be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of comments. I also want to make sure that people have an opportunity to have a meaningful say rather than being the 53rd person on the comment list. Based on my experiences with the online courses that I teach, right now I'm thinking at least 2 and maybe as many as 4 groups.
2. I've been playing with Lefora as a potential discussion tool. I've also considered blogs and/or wikis. I definitely do NOT want WebCT / Blackboard / Moodle or any other kind of course management system (although Moodle's the least objectionable of those three). I'd like RSS subscription capability, maybe for both posts and replies. The ability to see what's new / read / unread would be nice too (I don't think Lefora has this). I'm not sure what else is out there.

If anyone has any ideas on either of these fronts - thoughts regarding group size and/or what good tools might be for this - I'm open to suggestions. I need to make some decisions soon. Sign-up ends June 1 and we start June 9!

Anything else I should be thinking about? I'm excited to get going!

Participants wanted for the first annual CASTLE summer book club

I’m going to try something new this summer. I just finished reading Influencer: The power to change anything. It’s possibly the best leadership book that I’ve read in years and I’m itching to discuss it with someone. So I decided to see if I can get an online book club up and running this summer. If you’re interested, read on…

Getting started

• E-mail me by June 1 that you’re interested in participating
• Buy the book!

Commitments

• Keep up with the reading
• Be an active participant in our online discussion area
• Dissect ideas vigorously but also be nice to other discussants

Schedule

1. 6/9 to 6/15 – Part 1 Introduction, Chapter 1, and Chapter 2 (44 pages)
2. 6/16 to 6/22 – Chapter 3 (28 pages)
3. 6/23 to 6/29 – Part 2 Introduction and Chapter 4 (38 pages)
4. 6/30 to 7/6 – Chapter 5 (26 pages)
5. 7/7 to 7/13 – Chapter 6 (30 pages)
6. 7/14 to 7/20 – Chapter 7 (26 pages)
7. 7/21 to 7/27 – Chapter 8 (26 pages)
8. 7/28 – 8/3 – Chapter 9 (34 pages)
9. 8/4 to 8/10 – Chapter 10 and Wrap-Up (20 pages)

This offer is open to all leaders and change agents, at whatever level they’re operating (hint: might be a good summer activity for some of your local principals or superintendents?)

I’m looking forward to some powerful discussions. Hope some of you will join me this summer!

Announcing the CASTLE Advisory Board

Thank you to everyone who expressed interest in serving on the CASTLE Advisory Board. We had many, many more applicants than we possibly could take. Although having too many people who are willing to serve is a wonderful problem to have as an organization, it also meant that we had to make some extremely difficult decisions. We will do our best to try and tap into everyone’s expertise in other ways…

Below is our new advisory board. As you can see, we strove for diversity of thought, professional role, and geography. Many of the individuals below also are bloggers (which probably isn’t too surprising).

Principals

• Dave Dimmett (Indiana). Assistant Principal, Harrison High School, Evansville-Vanderburgh School Corporation.
• Scott Elias (Colorado). Assistant Principal, Loveland High School, Thompson School District.
• Greg Farr (Texas). Principal, Shannon Education Center, Birdville Independent School District. Alternative School Administrator of the Year, Texas Association of Alternative Education.
• Dave Keane (Iowa). Principal, Keokuk High School, Keokuk Community School District.

Central office administrators

• Barry Bachenheimer (New Jersey). Director of Instructional Services, Caldwell-West Caldwell Public Schools. Google Certified Teacher. Ercell Watson Award (Educator of the Year), Montclair State University.
• Kurt Bernardo (Ohio). Technology coordinator, Orange City Schools. Ohio Technology Coordinator of the Year.
• Dr. Greg Davis (Iowa). Executive Director, Management Support Services, Des Moines Public Schools. Co-chair, Consortium for School Networking CTO Council.
• Dr. Shabbi Luthra (India). Director of Technology, American School of Bombay.
• Andy Torris (China). Deputy Superintendent, Shanghai American School.
• James Yap (New York). Director of Instructional Technology and Data Management, Ramapo Central School District.

Teachers

• Clay Burell (South Korea). English / Social Studies teacher and technology coordinator, Korea International School. Apple Distinguished Educator.
• Dan Meyer (California). Math teacher, San Lorenzo Valley High School, San Lorenzo Valley Unified School District. Cable industry Leader in Learning.
• Ben Wilkoff (Colorado). Virtual resource teacher, eDCSD, Douglas County School District. Edutopia / Yahoo! National Totally Wired Teacher Award.

Media specialists / technology integrationists

• Carolyn Foote (Texas). Librarian, Westlake High School, Eanes Independent School District.
• Tim Stahmer (Virginia). Instructional technology specialist, Fairfax County Public Schools.

Higher education

• Dr. Jon Becker (Virginia). Assistant Professor, Educational Leadership, Virginia Commonwealth University.
• Dr. Michael McVey (Michigan), Assistant Professor, Educational Media and Technology, Eastern Michigan University.
• Dr. David Quinn (Florida). Assistant Professor, Educational Administration and Policy, University of Florida.

National, international, and other organizations

• Rowland Baker (California). Assistant Superintendent, Santa Cruz County Office of Education. Co-director, Technology Information Center for Administrative Leadership.
• Dr. Stuart Ciske (Wisconsin). Educational consultant, Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.
• Dr. Ann Flynn (District of Columbia). Director, Education Technology, National School Boards Association.
• Wes Fryer (Oklahoma). Director of Education Advocacy (PK-20), AT&T. Apple Distinguished Educator.
• Doug Levin (District of Columbia). Senior Director, Education Policy, Cable in the Classroom. Treasurer, Partnership for 21st Century Skills.
• Sylvia Martinez (California). President, Generation YES.
• Ewan McIntosh (Scotland). National Adviser: Learning and Technology Futures, Learning and Teaching Scotland.
• Erin Reilly (Massachusetts). Research Director, Project New Media Literacies, MIT Comparative Media Studies. National School Boards Association 20 to Watch. Cable industry Leader in Learning.